HANDS, NAILS, ETC.

This is my shellac mani like 5 days in. You sorta cant see the best part in the pic which is a very very fine silver shimmer.

http://i48.tinypic.com/34gvsiu.jpg

Those are nice, E! They look wet, I love that.

I'm on week two of sponge ombré nails, I tried to do 3 colours (pink, white, red) and it got kind of sloppy, but not terrible. I'm anal so in satisfied but unwilling to redo til the weekend. Also this shade is the same of the brand I have a big meeting with tomorrow, and I'm that cheesy.

http://instagr.am/p/R_ux7ijbKM/

Those are awesome!

Yesterday I stumbled on a bottle of the glitter polish Milani Gems, which is a dupe of the Deborah Lippmann "Birthday Party" which retails for $18 a bottle. The dupe was $4.50. My nails are basically disco balls now.

http://fashionindiemedia.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Polish-Lava-Milani-Jewel-FX-in-Gems.jpeg

Not my actual fingers ^

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Photoon11-16-12at819PM3.jpg

Woah those are killer!

I wanted to buy gold sparkly polish to go with my dress/birthday dance night tomorrow, just got home and remembered :( I feel the celebration demands sparklers so I'll dig deep to find something in my bin here. Bah.

oh that reminds me of like 12 years ago when i bought this red glitter polish that looked a lot like that -- it was like red ruby slipper nails and i LOVED it but it was hell to get on and off and then i just threw it away

yours looks great!

shiny!! sparkly! <3

FFM: Hey happy birthday! It is almost my birthday, too. November! Yes!

Loving your nails, in orbit!

La Lechera, had that same experience with glittery red polish and it was indeed 12 years ago. I was just thinking of that the other day too, how there was a period of time I always wore glitter polish of some sort. I was also doing a lot of clubbing.

Happy Birthday, Finefinemusic!!!

Happy Birthday, Carl Agatha!

Thanks ladies, and happy birthday to YOU, Carl!
I mixed some yellow & orange polish and layered a few blue & silver sparkles on top. Not quite what I was hoping for but a suitable solution. I'll get a picture up when lighting is more ideal.

Everyone otm, this shit has to soak in basically liquid acetone to come off. I'll worry about that in a few days when I'm ready to do something else. (Aka kicking the can down the road, eh?)

The last time I took srs glitter polish off, I soaked cotton balls in remover, wrapped them around my names, then wrapped aluminum foil around my finger tips and hung out for five or ten minutes. Worked! Maybe somebody here told me to do that.

^thats how I do it too. I just tear the cotton balls up so I have ten little pieces from two cotton balls.

Got my first gel manicure! My nails were looking rrrrrough and I had zero time at home to do anything about them and a half hour tops for lunch so an instant dry manicure at a no nonsense nail salon seemed like the solution.

It's amazing how fast it dries. I started to hand my wallet to the manicurist so she could pull my credit card out and she's like, "They're dry. You can get it yourself." Duh. The polish looks kind of thick, honestly, and it wasn't a very good manicure in general, but I'm definitely into the quick drying and promised longevity. I'll definitely go to my preferred salon and try it there.

I love the idea. Lauren is rly into gel manis, too. I think I would want a simple design, maybe with contrast half-moons or sthing just so I didn't get bored with it over the 3-week lifespan, but it's tempting. How has it held up?

Tried to do a matte vs glitter mani last night but hell if the matte topcoat isn't slower than Seche Vite and I didn't have time at night for all the layers to dry properly. Must do tape-job on 2nd day if it's late in the evening. So I just put gloss over it to hide the mess.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Festive.jpg

I bought hole-punch stickers this time btw! Makes the tips a lot easier.

nice one, orbit! v festive!

Thanks! It feels kinda boring, maybe I'm getting jaded. But I just ordered 8 new colors from the internet so I'll have crazier combinations by next weekend.

girl that is glitz

xp It still hasn't chipped at the ends of my nails, but it's looking bad down towards the cuticles (one reason why this wasn't a good manicure: she painted my cuticles as well as my nails, so there are some issues down there as my nails grow out). Turns out the worst part is that I really want to take the polish off but I can't because it's no chip and I don't have acetone and time to sit around with foil on my fingers and the fortitude to scrape off the softened polish and I don't know when I'm going to get to a nail place this weekend.

personally i love red and gold together, and the simplicity is v striking. not at all boring!

Can I just take a minute to be happy in a simple way with the progress I've made on my nails this year? I'm not bad at it! It's nice to have one fancy/arty thing even when I'm being a dirtbag otherwise. Now if only boys wanted to date my nails.

I guess what I should say is I'm happy to displace a little of my feminine identity to my nails, which I can do for myself and satisfy some small creative urge, and away from other parts of my appearance.

and they're like 10 tiny art canvasses, on which you can express your creativity and individuality also sparkles and crazy awesomeness.

I've fallen off the nail wagon again after thinking I would stay on it this time. It's all I can do just to keep them neatly trimmed. *hangs head*

I miss biting for the simple fact that I hate filing my nails, heh. I keep them long because I hate trying to file them. I should quit being a cheap ass and just get them professionally done on my lunch once a month and paint in between.

Lately, I've been having a stressful, busy time at work and taking the time at nights once in a while to paint my nails has been very soothing & centering. Put on some music, paint & decompress.

I do it while watching movies. I have a whole little work station with a glass salt cellar for the acetone and a bag for everything when I'm done. It's nice.

For years on and off I've been living in areas where lots of women have fabulous, amazing nail art jobs all the time and I've barely paid any attention, but now that I'm trying to free-hand things I appreciate them so much more, I'm a covert nail inspector on the train and in stores. I feel like kind of an ingrate for not seeing this art all around before.

yeah this thread has made me notice more ppl's nails too! I complimented a checker at Rite Aid last week for her incredible nails, she seemed quite pleased that I noticed :D

Yay masking tape! So much better than scotch tape, my taping technique still needs fine-tuning but it improved from start to finish so I think it's learnable.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Pyramidal.jpg

I cannot stop with the gold glitter apparently.

I wonder if painter's tape would be even better...

Looks good!

I TRIED TO BUY A ROLL OF PAINTER'S TAPE ON THURSDAY. Do you know how much it was? TEN DOLLARS. FOR ONE ROLL. When did that happen??!

WHOA. That's... dumb.

I think the register woman was offended that I didn't believe her and went back to the shelf to get a different roll in case it was an error. No error, somewhat to my embarrassment, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's a shocking price.

Also I can't say it enough: Seche Vite is a miracle. It makes my nails so deeply shiny that it's hard to even photograph them.

wtf TEN dollars?

that's some bullshit

I'm finna go get my no chip soaked off at the salon yay and I am going to ask if they will do black nail polish with red glitter topcoat because for some reason that's all I can think about on my nails. (I have the gear to do it myself at home but since I have to go for polish removal why not, I ask you?)

Why not, indeed. Glitter glitter glitter glitter.

Bored now.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Daggers.jpg

RAD

my nails are short and unadorned and a bit scraggly because i am so into climbing right now. but i'm going to do them fast and simple right now bc it's party season! :)

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

The angles are really hard! And if the black part is off-center, the silver part will never line up either. So my technique could be better, but it's presentable, at least?

oh SHUT UP
you know that is a spectacular job!! so deco!

Yeah, but my goal is for it to be indistinguishable from a professional job. A regular manicure is around $15 in these parts, but an art one starts at $40 and goes to like $100 and up at a place that specializes. I'll never do the designs that are actually free-hand representational sketching, because I'm awful at that, but I should be able to get the geometric designs as well as anywhere once I work out how best to peel the tape off, how thick to make each color, how to find the center, what looks best, which polishes interact funny.

this is like when you told me that mod people are all sizing up each other's clothes -- totes not a world i live in! i think your nails look super duper great!

this is a cool idea - might test it out on the regular sharpie markers I have kicking around here.

http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/12/mani-monday-new-favorite/

I went a little nuts at Sephora but the set of 15 mini Nails Inc polishes was $22.50!!

And I got some Illamsqua polishes.